The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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[0:00] Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, the place for blade lovers to learn about knives and hear from the makers, manufacturers, and reviewers that make the knife world go round.
I'm Bob DeMarco, and coming up, a new one from Topps, a random knife giveaway, and my blade show acquisitions.
♪♪ Welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting.
Here's your host, Bob the Knife Junkie DeMarco. Welcome back to the show.
My favorite comment from this past week was from Christian McBride who said, Wow, great coverage of Blade Show, man.
It's videos like this and a few others that really bring Blade Show to us at home who couldn't be there.

[0:48] And I thank you for that. You got some awesome stuff this year that custom Pinkerton was to die for.
I think Lynn Thompson must have been a high point for sure, and indeed it was.
I enjoyed the little interviews you did. They were fantastic.
Definitely enjoyed the segment of the Knife Junkie, one of my favorites, I think.
Keep up the great work.
Well, Christian, thank you, sir, for putting wind in my sails.
That was, it's always fun doing that one.
I know it's a lot of work for Jim, but that is always a fun episode because I get to talk to a whole bunch of knife makers and just a whole bunch of people and show.
Give my impressions of what my experience was. So I'm glad, and in years before, before I ever went to Blade Show, other video makers were bringing that to me, just like I'm bringing that to Christian. So thank you, that means a lot, sir.
All right, all that being said, I think it's time for a pocket check. ["Pocket Check"]

[1:51] Today I had in pocket the Night Horse by Asymmetrical, a beyond EDC brand.
That's their mid-tier where they dip into the titanium stores and the good steals, the S35BNs.
And then they also have a lower rung and a higher rung. I got a chance to hang out with Dirk Pinkerton a bit this past weekend at Blade Show, which was really awesome.
He's a great guy, really good to spend time with, but also, man, makes these incredible knives.
And so I've had this in my pocket the past few days, this and the oddly priced other one, the G10 version, which is so, so inexpensive.
It's a crime that not every household has one at 30 bucks over at Smoky Mountain Knifeworks.
Definitely check that out.
But I just think it's beautiful. I love the navaja, and I love this modern take on it with that Spanish clip and that dipping belly with the long acute point.
This is just, you know, it's crying out for a street, but like, I wanna defend my honor every time I carry this beautiful thing.
So I had that in my front right pocket today. And then as usual, I was carrying a slip joint, and I've been on the kick. I've been on the most recent...

[3:15] The most recent Jack Wolf Knives kick, that being the Feel Good Jack, a great, great knife. This has, just kind of hits all the magic points.
It's nice and slender and thin. It's based on a classic pattern that I love, the doctor's knife.
And I got that beautiful blue carbon fiber.
But it's the wharncliffe blade, or that sheep's foot blade that is so impressive on this with the long long tip. I positively love using this knife. It is just a wicked cutter. Very very thin and slicey on the edge but that acute point is even more acute than the midnight jack. Yes the midnight jack. One that I that I really, really love, and for the blade.
So they're great companion pieces, if you ask me.
Man, I have to say, I had a chance to catch up with Ben, if you saw the video that Christian McBride was just commenting on, you saw a quick interview with Ben about the amazing Bolster Lock, the gunslinger.
Gunslinger, my God, he went from amazing.

[4:33] Like the best slip joints, to just amazing, same level amazing, bolster lock front flipper, amazing.
I can't wait to show that thing off. It's so beautiful, but in the meantime, you can watch that video that just dropped on Sunday, and you'll see him talking about it.
But man, Ben Belkin is even more impressive than I thought because he just entered a realm that he doesn't normally enter with pocket clips, etc. and locks and all of that.
Hats off to you, sir.
All right, next up in my waistband is the Combatant by TKL Knives.
The TKL Knives booth, I feel like I was just a flunky, like a groupie there.
I kept kind of winding up there and hanging out.
I think Tim is awesome and his wife is awesome, and then I met his friend Imri, who he's doing his latest.

[5:33] Sapper model fixed blade with from the Israeli IDF, he was a very interesting character and fun to hang out with, so I was just there all the time and I was like, oh man, I'm like a groupie, so I'd have to go elsewhere.
Look at other cool knives, but this is a great knife that I expected to carry that front scout position, you know, just horizontal on the belt right up front, but it ends up that when I received this, He also sent me the Night Stalker, and that is perfect.
Rides perfectly on the belt like that, right up front, and doesn't print, you don't see it, it's like, you forget it's even there.
This one, to me, doesn't work as well that way as it does appendix carry up front, so I just switched discrete carry clips for this deep, you know, half inch or one inch clip.
So, love this one, and it's, you barely notice it.
Sometimes, like, when I'm bending over to tie my shoe, I feel it, and I'm just glad I'm not doing that all day long.
Okay, so that's the combatant, and then, of course, I had to have some emotional support in the way of fidget energy expenditure, and so I carried this.
I love this knife.
This also touches me on the design aspect. I love that clip point blade with the jimping on it.

[7:00] It's really ideal for any sort of choked up motion, not motion, but use of that blade.
For instance, you're cutting into a box but you don't want to cut too deep.

[7:12] You can sort of grip that jimping with your finger there and sort of gauge how deep you go into anything you're cutting, really.
So I do like that jimping up front, not just because it looks cool.
Also great fuller and David Cam of Orion Knives was doing the flipper button lock pretty much before everyone else including we and Savivi with his, what was the model?
The Orion, you're all yelling it at your screen and it's escape, Solaris, that's right, Solaris.
Man came through. So yeah, he's been doing that for a long time and others have caught up. I like David cams work a lot and this thing is beautiful. As is the Solaris because it's modular you can swap out different pivot collars and different back spacers, etc. I love it in this. My card I believe it comes in a few other flavors including carbon fiber. So that's what I had in my pocket today. I had the knight horse by asymmetrical.
I had the the jack wolf knives feel good jack, the combatant by TKL knives and the Scorpio by Orion knives. Tell me what you were carrying. Drop it down in the comment below. It's always interesting to find out what you classy ladies and gentlemen.

[8:40] Carry. And sometimes it gives me inspiration. Speaking of inspiration. A couple weeks back, I promised this, forgetting that Blade Show was going to be the next week. I said, random knife giveaway next week.

[8:55] Well, sorry, that was Blade Show, I was gone, and I just wasn't thinking ahead, and if you ask my wife, that might be something that happens more often than not.
So here we have the Migiron Akari.
This is a gift to the channel by Dave, this old sword, Blade Reviews.
Classy gentleman giving us a classy knife to give away. Look at this beautiful, to me it's a tactical gentleman's knife, it's got a nice reach that's about a 3.6, 3.75-inch blade, of their proprietary steel called, stand by, DC-53 with a nice coating on it, nice crowned spine with a swedge, sort of a subtle swedge, and very sharp knife, I will admit.
I've tested this out on paper before.
Make sure that you're gonna get a good knife, of course. Molded, or I mean, sculpted titanium clip, And the only knife I've ever seen gold accents on where I don't think it looks gauche or cheesy.
And the action is amazing. My left hand, maybe not so much with a front clipper.
So, yep, Migurana Akari tomorrow night on Thursday Night Knives.
Do tune in. And all you gotta do is like, leave a comment and you'll be put into a random generator and boom, you very well may win.

[10:16] Alright, still to come, we're going to do some knife life news and find out what's been cracking, what's been coming out of Blade Show, and then we'll get to the state of the collection.
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[11:16] You're listening to the Knife Junkie Podcast. And now, here's the Knife Junkie with the Knife Life News.
Okay, so Blade Show, as you know, is the place where many new knives are debuted.
Fox Knives always has cool offerings, if you ask me. But this year, they had three real standouts, and Ben Schwartz over at Knife News highlighted them here, and I'm glad he did.
First, check this out, Les George, anything he does in my eyes is beautiful.
So his is the Anzu, a sort of robust, magna-cut steel blade.
As you can see there, it's got a bit of the less George look, as does the handle.
This is sort of like an amalgamation of his styles, which is great to see because I think everything he does, is pretty awesome, especially his daggers. So I'm excited to see this, and it's got the VersaLock, that's their bar lock.
So that should be cool to see. Ambidextrous and all that.
Next, this is the one to me that is the most exciting and beautiful, and it's the Goudi Van Poppel design.

[12:30] And it's the Eastwood.
They had a folding version that they did not have at the show, and that I've seen elusively here and there.
I think Therapeutic Edge had one, and really got me excited for this beautiful design.
I mean, look at that, and Goudi Van Poppel, I think his stuff is awesome.
And if you don't know who he is, look him up on Instagram and prepare to drool.
Stuff is awesome, but they made a fixed blade version. Here it is.
I love the look of that beautiful swedged clip point with a continuous belly and a finger choil.
And then that horse hoof handle is just awesome. You can choke kind of like choke back on it, if you will, and do some swinging, do some chopping with it, light, obviously very light duty chopping, but otherwise in your grip, it is in there firmly.
And to me, of course, I approve of its tactical applicability.
But just a beautiful knife from someone who I think designs really nice stuff.
He designed the lion steel agitano folding slip joint navaja, if you're familiar with that knife.

[13:41] Next up, they have the metamorphosis, which is pretty cool. This metamorphosis, you can swap the blades.
This is designed by Dennis Simonuti.
And I did not, actually, I'm not lying, but I'm just remembering now, actually, seeing someone asking if the rest of it was here, or something like that, and I didn't know what he was talking about, but now I read this.
But yeah, it is the sort of thing you can customize with the different style blades, and it uses that radius lock that debuted last year debuted last year at Blade Show and won all sorts of awards.
Now, one thing I have to say about the awards, and I am not trying to cast aspersions anywhere, but I have noticed that oftentimes there seem to be legacy awards.
Well, I guess the same companies continue to be awesome. The same companies continue to be awesome, but you always have to wonder what the criteria are for winds and such.
So, in this case, that rotoblock won last year. But that metamorphosis looks like a pretty cool one and all three of those blade shapes look pretty useful and quite matters.

[15:00] All right, next up, Andrew Demko had the Megalolock. Megalolock, I think is what it is.
To me, it reminds me of Megalodon. You know, Megalodon lock, the shark lock.
This is the Megalodon lock because it's on this gigunda, this humongous folder. Look at this thing.

[15:21] Five and a half inch blade, kind of like his offerings through Cold Steel.
This is like a big luxury sort of custom cold steel with that lock.
I mean, that lock doesn't appear on any cold steels, but you catch my drift.
This thing is a full custom hollow ground spear point.
It actually looks like a shark. When you look at it next to its stable mates, other knives in the same shark lock lineup, lineup. It is definitely the great white over there on the left hand. Even the tail end of that, which is no doubt, that pommel is no doubt very useful to keep that big knife big, and no doubt heavy knife in your hand with that upward flange and the downward.
It does evoke a marine type tail and the shape of that blade of course looks like, the whole, The whole thing looks like a great white shark.
But if you want it, you're gonna shell out major and you're gonna wait and you probably won't get one at all.
Because I don't know how many of those they can make. But who knows.
Look at it with that full lineup.
Very cool knife. I did not see it, unfortunately.

[16:41] There you have it, you can go get your own. Just save your shekels.
Alright, Spyderco at Blade Show, they had some really cool knives.
I went around, my favorite part of their display were the prototypes that are coming up.
There are some incredible prototypes in that cabinet.
Beautiful, so I'm very excited to see what's gonna be coming in the future from them.
You don't hear me talk about Spyderco like that. I mean, I have massive respect for them, but you don't hear me oohing and aahing over their beautiful stuff that much.
But what they had in the counter looked very, very exciting.
But what did come out this time, look at the little yoo-jimbo, it's so cute up there.
That's the mini-jimbo up top. But first, let's talk about the native chief lightweight in their proprietary Spy 27.
So now all the lightweights that have the SPY-27 have that dark blue, I think that might be taking over for the old, what was the old one in the blue? O-O.

[17:52] Some O-O, damn, I can't remember the name of that steel. You can tap it in there down below.
Oh, CTS-BD1, I could just look down here, right where it says that.
But anyway, it's replacing that. It's got that dark blue light handle material.
And I love the native chief. I love the length and the shape of that blade.
It is absolutely gorgeous.
We'll go down to the micro Jimbo, something that...
Something that Michael Janich mentioned on this show quite a while ago when it was in development.
These things don't happen overnight. Sometimes it takes a few years to bring something to market.
I kind of love it. It's not nearly as charming or beautiful as either the Yojimbo II or the Yojumbo.
Come on, give me a few more curves on the blade, just on the top.
Like, it needs a more swooping sort of thumb ramp thing, but who knows what the ergonomics, it probably doesn't.
Mike Janich knows just exactly what he's doing when it comes to knife design, especially this type of knife design. So, can't wait to get this.
Yes, I have to have one so that I have the full lineup.

[19:06] And below that, yeah, Leap Jumper KA390. Interesting, the one below that is very interesting to me.
M4 Tenacious. Tenacious, which has always been a budget heavy hitter, and then they gave it S35EN, and that became not so budget, and now they're putting M4, a luxury steel known for its high edge retention, extremely high edge retention.
So this is now a luxury knife. This is a luxury Tenacious, which I think is pretty cool.
It's a beautiful design. It works great. I mean, and then if you like to fidget with your knives, it is an excellent one.
And then we go down below that, the Subvert Sprint down there, a Naughty Amour. He is of Black Snow Customs. Beautiful thing, that knife. Though if I were to get one, I would just go all out and spend the several thousand to get the real thing.
Oh, that's down below, let's see, yeah, this one right here.

[20:12] Pretty nice. Anyway, those are some of the things coming from Spyderco. Very excited, but I didn't, get my military too. They were there. I could have gotten one at Blade Show, but I already paid my $5 down payment to Blade HQ. So someday, someday they'll have it. I don't know, Blade HQ, they're awesome, but sometimes they take a long time. I know it's not them. All right, but I'll blame them. All right, next up, the third Spartan Harzee collaboration is unreal. It is really, really beautiful. Let's take a look at it. This is a Harzee, Bill Harzee Jr. designed Kukri.

[20:58] Look at that. Yes, it's a Kukri, but it's also more of a, I don't know, it is a Kukri, so extreme a kukri. It is a nicely, robustly recurved blade for incredible chopping, hacking, slashing, pole cutting, and all the rest of it. This is just a wicked tool for all things, whether it be survival of all sorts, if you will.
And this is another one of the 1095 Cro-Van Spartan blades made in conjunction with.

[21:39] Just like they did the fighter, basically.
And so a Taiwanese-made knife, and in reach, within reach, to the common man.
So I will soon be getting this.
This is the one. I did check out the fighter at Blade Show, and I really like it.
I wish the blade were a little longer, I must say, on the Spartan Harzey Fighter, but it is a beautiful knife with a beautiful quick point blade and that awesome handle that has appeared throughout Bill Harzey's full tang designs for quite some time, in one sort of iteration or another, and it's always a really nice looking.
So I'm very excited for that.
All right, lastly, I just want to mention Knife Rights has opened their Ultimate Steel Spectacular.
Called Knives, Guns, and More and those are the things you can win and remember this is how it works.

[22:38] While it lasts, every donation gets a donation knife like you see there, 100 bucks gets that SOG, and then already sold out are these at the 200 level are those Spydercos and $400 level you get that QSP.
So on and on, and depending on how much money you spend, you get a number of entries into the Ultimate Steel main drawing where you get to choose a one of an amazing array of prizes. I checked them out while I was at the Blade Show and they were all there and they are knives donated by custom knife makers, by manufacturers, like special versions by manufacturers, all sorts of really good, I don't know guns that well, rifles that well, but these incredible looking rifles with all sorts of crazy optics, different trips, like safari trips, hunting, this and that, Just incredible prizes that you can win that people have donated to Knife Rites.

[23:44] So definitely go check that out. It's a great way to become a member of Knife Rites.
It's the best time of the year to become a member of Knife Rites because your donation also gets you a membership and you have a chance to win all these great knives.

[23:59] So go check it out. Ultimate Steel, spectacular at Knife Rites.
All right, coming up on the Knife Junkie, We're going to take a look at what is new in my collection, except with a little asterisk, and then Blade Show acquisitions.
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And now that we're caught up with knife life news, let's hear more of the knife junkie podcast. Yes, let's.
OK, so I know you're all wondering what I brought. You probably weren't wondering, but I just wanted to reiterate I had the KUBI flash.
This is what I brought just in case I had to sacrifice one to the TSA, but now I'm starting to grow pretty fond of it two years in, and two blade shows I might retire this so that it doesn't get nicked by the TSA.
I had the noble one, but I have a couple of extras here.

[25:17] Sort of unexpectedly. So the Nova 1, I don't mean Nova 1s, but I do have to say the Nova 1, one of the ones of the production knives was on the table at Hogtooth Knives at Blade Show, and people loved it and were checking it out, and it was cool to see the production version.
It is slightly different than mine, naturally, because we changed a couple things from the prototype, and it is awesome.
And he got so many people asking to buy that knife. So we might figure out a way in the future to make something similar, but less exclusive or something, I don't know.
We'll figure it out. But I was very proud of that and happy and excited.
But pride goeth before the fall.
So I had to just remember, we have to get these done and in the hands of people first.
But that's not in my hands, that's in Matt's hands. Very capable.
Oh, God, the knives he brought were incredible. It takes a lot not to spend money on that stuff.
Okay, so, oh, next up, I did have my Victorinauts, but I cannot find it now.
And I also brought the Nitecore P20iX, and planned to carry it because I was walking to and from the hotel one mile, you know, sometimes at night and then forgot, this is so boneheaded.

[26:42] I packed it in my dob kit in a little side pocket and then later when I was looking for it, I was like, oh, where'd I put it?
You know, I guess I must have forgotten it. And then I found it when I got home.
So that was kind of a mama luke move.
But there it is, I brought it with me. I guess in case of extreme, you know.

[27:03] I was tearing through all of my stuff, I would have found it.
But when I thought I needed it, I didn't have it.
So there you go, prepare. But a couple of things on the way out.

[27:16] I saw this knife and I got it for my wife. And sorry, Jim, I didn't tell you about this, so no lower third for this one.
And I don't even remember the name of it. I just snagged it right before we started rolling.
And it is a beautiful, cute little Senka.
I mean, it's like, it's perfect for my wife, who is petite. But for her, it's kind of a long, thin, you know.
Thruster, I guess, I guess you would call that. You know, because of the shape of it, it's pointy.
Pointier than some of the other stuff, like she's got the Elementum, which has a more bulbous, slicing blade, she's got some other knives that are more like slicing blades, but this one is decidedly pointy.
I also think it's very, I don't know, it's very attractive to my eye.
And the flipping action is awesome, and it also has a very nice opening hole there.
And we'll find out what it's called and I'll make a little video on it, but it's pretty cool.
Had to grab it from her. She grabbed one of the knives that's coming up in the Blade Show Acquisition, so I have to have a stand-in for it because it's my Father's Day knife and she insisted that I fork it over.
But something else just came in the mail and this is going to my good friend Jock across the shock and it is the new Topps El Pionero, a collaboration with Ed Calderon.

[28:43] And so you see here on this knife, you see his signature notch on the back of the pommel area of the blade so that when you're using it in pical style for defense and you want to index and know where your knife is, know where your edge is, you feel that notch, you know that the edges in, so that you're gonna do maximum damage when you go for those defensive, arcing defensive thrusting stabs and such, very nasty stuff.

[29:17] You know, that that style of fighting is intended for. But it's also just a great looking utility knife, and very easy to carry.
I've put it in my waist, I mean, I haven't worn it all day, carried it all day, but I can tell already, me with the way I'm carrying it right now and with the way I used to carry it, both in the waistband but now I appendix carry whereas I used to have it at 3 o'clock.
It's very comfortable in both positions. I find a rounded pommel very nice so that it doesn't jab in too much to the ribs or anything like that. This knife is great.
I'm excited about this. I'm going to do a video on it and then send it over Jock's way but I might just end up gettin' one myself.

[30:02] I'd love to put a little royalty money, however little that probably is, in the hands of Ed Calderon, and I always love supporting Pop's knives, so why not, right?

[30:14] Why not? You tell me, why not? All right, so we have gotten to the Blade Show acquisitions, and I know that you saw them, perhaps, in the Blade Show show, but not the optimal lighting, and I could barely hold it and keep it in frame, So here's a chance to show these things off in a better light.
First is the Pinkerton Knives FireAnt fixed blade triple edged wharncliffe.
First of all you'll see that I put a discrete carry clip on there and the screw hole configuration would only accommodate one screw.
So in order to both kind of keep this from turning too much and also keep it stationary under, in the waistband and not moving around, I put this bit of bike tire, or a bike inner tube, over there and carried it today like that.
That's the first time, I've seen other people on Instagram do that, but it's the first time I've ever carried like that, and it was awesome.
I must say, to have that bit of rubber under the clip and also against the inside of my pants, you know, that waistband there.

[31:27] It just stopped all sort of rotation, And once you find a comfortable position for sitting and standing and doing everything you need to do, it stays where you want it, it stays, so it's great.
So anyway, here's the knife. A great sheath from Dirk, as always.
But look at this.

[31:46] This is a, well, you could call it a reverse wharncliffe, but I'm gonna call it a, or a reverse tanta, but I'm gonna call it a wharncliffe.
You know what, I'm gonna call it a sheep's foot. Triple-edged sheep's foot is what this is.
It's in D2 steel, hand-ground impeccably and perfectly and beautifully by Dirk.
He's really awesome at hand grinding. He's known amongst his peers as being one of the best.
And he's also great at designing folders and other type fixed blade knives for the likes of Kaiser and Concept and Beyond EDC Beyond BBC and Shielden now and...

[32:33] Others he's a very prolific designer and also a wonderful maker you've seen a couple of other is.
Customs but that triple edge i cannot walk away from that.
Are there were many other temptations on that table and i vacillated a little but i kept saying you know triple edge.
Baby triple edge warren clifford now i'm gonna say sheepsfoot i think that's more accurate triple edge sheepsfoot look at that.
Or, really, if I hold it like this, it's a triple-edged Tanto, but obviously it's supposed to be held like this.
Beautiful, with the blue, fat carbon, blue and black, fat carbon, and the screws there. Very nice.
I'm going to put this back in its sheath. Carries really nicely.
That handle is great for coming up the, it's the perfect size.

[33:26] All right, next up, this is in a different form than it was in the last show, which was just a couple of days ago.
This is from a company called Fudo Forge, and I was just checking out their beautiful, expensive kitchen knives.
I was not shopping for that, but kind of struck up a brief conversation with them, and I asked for their cards, and I noticed as I was reaching for their card, they had this array of these little scalpels, scalpels and they were 30 bucks so I had to get one and I made a little drop in the pocket sheath with a little hook so you can extract it and and and pull the sheath off right as it comes out of your pocket and then I also jute wrapped it.

[34:12] Here's a nice jute wrap and that's their logo upside down I guess like that Kudo Forge, but check out this sweet little scalpel blade.
This thing is really awesome, very useful.

[34:30] I haven't quite used it yet. I did open a package today for my wife with it, which was cool, and I sharpened it even more.
It was nice and sharp, but I sharpened it even more. My favorite sharpening coffee cup at work, and it's a razor blade now. It's a scalpel now, I should say.
So I really like this and I had it dropped in my pocket all day long, just right next to my regular carry.
And I love it. You can reach in, if you reach in like this, I keep the hook aimed towards my other leg and if you reach in like this and you pull it out, you have the knife and pakal for defense.
If you reach in like this and pull it out like this, you have it for, you know, scoring.
Mycarta, or whatever you're gonna, I don't know why you would score Mycarta.
But, very nice knife, I really, really like it. Glad I spent those 30 bucks.
A nice little impulse buy.
Okay, next up, I knew I was gonna get a Pinkerton, and I knew I was going to get one of these.
An auxiliary manufacturing. Now, he's been on the show, that's Michael Jarvis of auxiliary manufacturing.
He's been on the show, and he came on Thursday Night Knives, And I like all of his knives, including his kitchen knives.

[35:56] I like all of his knives, but I kept coming back to this. This is the Pocket Rocket Dagger.
And this is also an extremely comfortable appendix carry knife.

[36:11] Barely prints, though I found that I think I'm gonna put some of that rubber on here so I can find exactly the right angle and keep it there.
I found that the angle of it was changing a little bit, but in the right position, it didn't print at all, and you have this very capable three-inch dagger. What is this?
I'm not sure what steel this is. I'm gonna have to, I know there's a birth card.
Oh, it's ADCR V2, I believe.
Auxiliary Aux MFG, Auxiliary Manufacturing. Beautiful paper my car to handle, and sculpted.
It's like a needle. Sculpted in this beautiful way. It's very ergonomic and comfortable.
Feels great in hand and also feels very secure. And that's important for a dagger without quillions or any sort of guard.
These, I feel it's pointy and sharp enough that I butted into my hand like that, into my palm, using those.
Those cutouts there for the fingers. You could do thrusting like that, but of course this would accelerate in a reverse grip.
But also, you know, it's great to have two edges on you in case one goes dull through work.
You always have the other one you can turn it over.
So, not, daggers aren't all just for, you know, dirty work.

[37:35] You know, you can just, if you're careful, you can use it for work work and have twice the longevity.
So this is the Pocket Rocket by Michael Jarvis and Auxiliary Manufacturing.
Some beautiful stuff. He does a lot of nice stuff with, what's that, Mexican blanket kind of micarta.
Beautiful.
All right, so another thing you might remember me saying, my real goal, and this was my stated goal, and I kept telling people this to see if someone would say, oh, I saw some over there, and you should go check them out.
But as I saw at Blade Show this year, The Pakal star seems to be waning a little bit, even though everyone kind of feels like they have to add that to their repertoire.
People have kind of calmed down a little bit about Al-Pakal.

[38:24] And certainly, people have cooled down a bit on push daggers.
I really wanted to push dagger, and so happy to remember that these guys, this guy, just came out with one.
And I was very excited to check it out, and then once I saw it and felt it, I loved it.
So this is the Stroopknives Push Dagger, and it's got a, he had some customs, and then he had his regular production, and I went for his regular production because the customs had fancier handles, a beautiful handles, but they were thicker, and I know that I want to carry this, So I went for the regular production in the flat, dark earth.
Sheath, but look at this blade.

[39:13] This, I believe, is also ADCR V2. Beautifully sculpted, double-edged push dagger here for the between the middle finger and the forefinger.
This is my preferred position.
The other one I have is from Cold Steel, and it's got an equal-sized handle, and it comes through the middle, and that's fine.
But this, I prefer. This feels better to me. It feels more controllable.
Yeah, and it's chiseled ground, so the edges are quite sharp, on a slash you will do, you know, tremendous damage and all that, but also with that flat back and the high grind and then that center flat, this thing is going to leave a very large hole.
So if you're going to use this as a defense knife, which, let's face it, that's what this is, you want to do maximum damage in the quickest amount of time.
Of course, this is intuitive because you're punching with it, it's very, very difficult to disarm something like this in a motivated person's hand, and then the holes that you do manage to leave will be very large and difficult to, you know, sew up, I guess, or heal.

[40:29] So it is a very effective style weapon. style weapon. For me, I just like it because I like push daggers and wanted to add one to my collection. So, Stroop Knives, always doing cool stuff, and Chris Stroop is a great, guy and a vet, a military veteran of the Army. Very nice work.
Speaking of very nice work, I stopped by the booth, or the table of American Blade Works, Michael Martin, and you may have seen my quick interview with him and his awesome family.
I really like his wife and his kids always seem nice.
This time, they were, man, they were tuckered out by the time I got to their table.
And it's funny because my daughters are at the age where they wanna come now to Blade Show.

[41:19] So I was keeping my eye out and watching all the kids at Blade Show, and some of them were soldiers.
They were excited to be there, and they just wanted to keep going, even though they were exhausted, and then some kids were just sort of hanging from their parents' arms, and I always saw parents being very encouraging.
You know, you get more flies with honey, and so they'd say, come on, come on, let's go.
You're doing great, you're doing great. So it was really fun, but that won't be happening.
Anyway, so at the table of American Blade Works, I got to check out this Model 2, And they said, take it home and check it out. Make some videos, you know?
And they know what they were doing.
They were just trying to get this sweetness in my hand for more than the five minutes I was standing in front of them. And, uh, oof.

[42:13] It's a very effective sales technique that people have taken advantage of with me on this channel because I actually, I'm definitely gonna get this.
I'm gonna buy this. I won't be sending this back to them. I will send $200 back to them, or whatever this costs, or whatever they charge me.
It is really amazing. Now, you know I've talked about American Blade Works, and I've shown off the Model 1 version 5.
That's a great knife, and he's been working to perfect, one that he worked through six iterations to perfect, and he did, you know, used a similar process, not of, but used all of what he learned about the refinement of the knife of his first model, put it into this, and it's amazing.
Titanium liner lock, this has MagnaCut, and I believe, I don't remember what he.

[43:08] What it's hardened to, but I do know that Shane Gables approves.
And if Shane Gables approves, I know it's at the right heat treat, because that's a very important aspect to him. So, like 63, something like that, if I'm not mistaken.
Amazing action, and this blade.
I thought because that point is not as acute as the wharncliffe, he does a wharncliffe for the Model 1 now, and this is a sheep's foot, so the wharncliffe doesn't have that hard break there, or that corner, it's just a gentle slope with more of a point, more of a thrusty point.
This thing, I just thought because it wasn't as pointy at the front that it wouldn't be as, oh my gosh, this thing cuts amazingly.
I put this through, what did I cut? Oh, just cardboard off of the new cat food box that came, and a couple of other things, and I got a big thing of coffee at work and I had to cut some box, do some box cutting, and I was so shocked at how nicely.

[44:22] This thing cuts amazing.
So I'm really, really excited about this knife.
I also think it's very beautiful. Beautiful closed, too. It looks like, reminds me of something Art Deco or like the Chrysler building or something.
Looks like it's almost out of a different era.
One that I long to belong to. Very, very beautiful knife.
Michael Martin and family, you are very smart for telling me to take this and borrow it for a few weeks.
Very smart. Consider it a sale. Alright, so next up. This is a stand-in.
This is my opinion by Tempest Knives.
The reason I'm showing this and not the microburst is because my wife insisted on taking the Microburst until Father's Day, because that was the knife that I bought when she said, since you're at Blade Show, just get yourself a Father's Day gift.
And so I got that, but I still had to turn it in, because I gotta wrap it.

[45:26] Pretend like they got it for me and all that.
So in its stead is this, and I gotta say, he also has this new, Casey also has a new one has a new one in prototype form that is awesome.
It's a titanium liner lock with, I believe it'll be 154CM with an incredible flipper and an incredible opening hole.
The flipper is one of those like zero profile flippers that works amazingly and as does the opening hole.
I'm very excited about that next design.
This one is a great one. I've always really, really liked the pinion And I had the Microburst on loan from KC, and then I slept on it, you know?
I had other things to buy at the time, and then seeing it at Blade Show at KC's table, and picking it up again, I fell in love with it all over again.
My only, I really vacillated back and forth, do I get all black, or do I get it with this shiny blade?
I decided to go with the, it's not that shiny, but I decided to go with the non-coated blade so I could more easily see the swedge and the flats and the differentiations between be twixt.
Okay, next up, another good friend, Lefty and Colin Maison Pierre of CM Designs, and here we go, Devo Knives.
They're a growler.

[46:54] I love this, and they loaned this to me. I got this on loan last year and really liked it.
That's a little bit of pork fat right there from the awesome lunch I had with my wife when I played hooky after Blade Show.
But anyway, this knife I had and was very impressed with, the prototype, so I bought it off their table.
For a song, by the way, you should get one of these things. They're quite inexpensive, but they have all these prototypes for dressed-up versions of these that are awesome.
So definitely keep your eyes peeled for those.
Also, great cutter, that very, very broad blade, and you know, it's lefty and colline, So it's like an incredibly thin, slicey blade.
A very, very awesome knife. I like this one quite a bit.
And as I mentioned when I first had it, also looks like a big Bowie to me.
I know everything, you know, looks like a Bowie to me, but just slight hump on that swedge.
If you reversed it a little bit, it'd be like a clip point.
Great, great knife. The Devo Knives Growler.

[48:05] And then, this was so cool, they gave this to me. Which I was, that meant a lot to me.
They're not there to give stuff away, they're there to sell knives and press the flesh.
So they gave this to me and I wasn't gonna say no. I think I said something like, no, I couldn't possibly, and then they insisted and I folded immediately.
This one has a nice hollow ground blade, also really thin behind the edge, and obviously just so cool. Look at this beautiful thing.
This is the Pony Stout, and a great sticker came in this one that said My Little Pony Stout, you know, in the My Little Pony letters.

[48:47] My daughters were into that. Great feel like this. I had the regular stout on loan, and that was a great one.
Larger than this, but I gotta say, I think I like this smaller one better.
All that said, I do not have them side-by-side to compare, but this feels just so great in the hand.
And I can't help but just love how it looks. And the Contour G10 feels great on this.
What is this steel? Hang on, let me see if I can see.
We'll see you, bye-bye.
Sorry, I think it's 14C28N, I cannot remember. But you have a little backspacer, which I like a lot, and then the blacked out wire clip.
But I like all the blacked out hardware, and I like the proprietary pivot.
That's how you do a logo.
Keep it off the blade.
I did not take my own advice with the Nova 1, but hey.

[49:46] All right, next up, this was also a gift, very generous, and I'm really not only proud to have it, but very excited to have it because I think it's really cool.
To me, it is a pocket gununting, and this is the Orion Knives Cetus.
I was talking about Orion, I was carrying this today, the Orion Knives Scorpio.
This was one that he sent me a prototype for, he being David Kam of Orion Knives, sent me this prototype, I featured it on the channel and I did like it quite a bit.
I mentioned how I really like that it's a completely straight blade, but the whole overall knife arcs and it arcs down from the pivot.
So you get a really, you get an essence, a recurve.
You get that sort of extreme downward, here, I'm gonna go do this over here in the camera here.
You get that extreme downward angle on that blade.
It's just really efficient cutter and tip cutter and just slicer, just drawing material into that triangle.
So really nice. This one is 14C28N, it's a steel frame lock with beautiful wood covers or scales, I guess you might call them.

[51:09] Nice jimping on top, very, very nice knife. I'm really excited to have this in the collection.
And now I have two Orion knives. Thank you, David Cam, much appreciated for this gift.
And I will be doing another video of this.

[51:28] Because it's different, you can feel it's been refined since prototype time, which is always the goal.
Okay, the very last thing, that was gonna be the last thing.
But then at the pit on Saturday night, I recognized someone that I follow on YouTube, who's, he's a pretty, pretty cool and unique dude.
His knife is, his company is called Aeronius, I guess his name is Aaron, Aeronius Blades, and he does some, he does some cool little videos on Instagram where he's in his shop, and he's listening to music and he's jamming out and he's showing his knives and he's kind of flipping them around and I just always stop and watch his videos, and I saw him walking to the pit, so I had to run up and introduce myself, and I'm gonna talk to him on the show when I get to him.
I have a long list of people, but he is definitely on it, and he gave me this, which I thought was so cool, just out of the blue, and it's a razor blade holder.
You know, you just put a regular razor blade in there, and you know what this is, but he did a little sukamaki wrap on it, and I love it, it's like skateboard tape underneath.

[52:44] And then this hardened lace over top.
And a lot of his knives have that feature.
A lot of them are wrapped like that, and they all have really bright colored laces, and bright colored, you know, glow in the dark, and all sorts of colorful.
He's a knife maker that lives out loud, what can I say? Ah, that was a terrible thing to say.
Sorry, I'll never say that again in your presence.
All right, well thank you for joining me for this show about the Blade Show acquisitions.
It did almost come out to a, it came out to about around 10, but some of them I didn't pay for, and then others, everyone gave me a deal.
It was so nice, I really appreciate it.
So, that is Blade Show, it is an awesome thing, and if you can hold out till Sunday, I think you can get some good deals on Sunday, too.
== See also == Do check it out if you can, I highly suggest it. And before I wrap up, I just want to say thank you to everyone who introduced themselves to me.
I really enjoy meeting people and talking about knives.

[53:56] But people who watch the show and come up to me and say, hey, I recognize you because I've seen your videos, and I like them, or whatever.
It's really nice. So thank you so much for everyone who introduced themselves and I just had a great time, and like I said last year, when I'm there, I really feel like I'm in my element, and I feel like everyone else kind of feels like that.
So it's a very harmonious sort of atmosphere.
Be sure to join us on Sunday for a great interview with someone whose knives are out of this world stellar.

[54:31] And to see them, experience them in person was something. And then, of course, tomorrow night, Thursday night knives, where you can stand to win the Miguron Acri just for being present and leaving a comment.
All right, for Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.
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[55:35] Music.